Mizoram under-construction railway bridge collapse: Death toll rises to 22
Mizoram’s Sairang area mishap, where an under-construction railway bridge collapsed on Wednesday, has reached 22. On Wednesday, 18 bodies were recovered.
Three workers were injured and one is missing.
Disaster response personnel continued their search operation for the second day on Thursday and will proceed with their search on Friday as well. The state government has identified the 22 people who were working on the site –– most of whom were from West Bengal.
A Mizoram government statement said that the Quick Response Team (QRT) along with National and State Disaster Response Force and Young Mizo Association volunteers continued their search operations.
Sources in railways said that the accident was due to the collapse of a gantry, which was being placed over the 104-metre pier of the under-construction bridge.
The steel structure suddenly toppled into the forested valley below. A high-level committee has been constituted by the Railway ministry to conduct a probe into the accident.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) general manager (construction), Sunil Kumar Jha, along with senior officials from the NFR headquarters in Maligaon (Guwahati), are still camping in Mizoram.
The railway bridge, being made under the 51.38-km railway project, was under construction over the Kurung river to connect Bairabi (near southern Assam) to Sairang.
